Abreu adds another accolade after home run assault vs. Cubs

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Aug 21, 2020; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Chicago White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu (79) hits a home run in the ninth inning against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. Mandatory Credit: Quinn Harris-USA TODAY Sports

José Abreu may have just finished the best week of his career, and now MLB has recognized his incredible hot streak with a Player of the Week award.

Dating back to last Monday, Abreu went 16-30, with seven homers, 15 RBI, nine runs and three doubles. With so many extra base hits, plus a couple of walks sprinkled in, Abreu also posted an incredible 1.896 OPS. For context, the White Sox single-season OPS record is Frank Thomas’ 1.217 mark from his 1994 MVP season.

The bulk of Abreu’s power production came during his historic weekend series against the Cubs. He set two White Sox home run records during the three-game set. The first for his six total home runs across the series, the second for hitting a home run in four consecutive plate appearances.

Over the week, Abreu led MLB in home runs, RBI and WAR (1.2). His .533 batting average was good for the A.L.’s top mark. Abreu’s power explosion also catapulted him to the top of the A.L. leaderboard for homers and RBI for the season.

Not surprisingly, Abreu was able to wreak havoc at the plate by hitting the ball hard consistently, and not hitting into easy outs often. According to FanGraphs, Abreu made hard contact 74.1% of the time, while only making soft contact 7.4% of the time. Compare that to the rest of the season when his hard contact rate was 49.2% with a soft contact rate of 12.3%. In addition, Abreu was able to elevate the ball, hitting ground balls only 29.6% of the time, versus 55.4% of the time previously.

This is Abreu’s fifth Player of the Week award. He has previously won two Player of the Month awards as well.

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